Wordmanship: At the antiquarian book fair

11:29 AM,
Mar. 13, 2013

Written by

Terry Mapes
wordmanship.blogspot.com

Last Saturday morning I made my annual visit to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Petersburg. The fair, which attracts dealers from as far away as Missouri, Ohio, California, Michigan and even Ontario, was more crowded than I can remember it ever being before. When you managed to squeeze into one of the dealers' booths, you took a chance on not being able to get out again for some minutes.

For someone who avoids crowds, this was the unpleasant part of the morning. The pleasant part, of course, was being surrounded by so many rare and valuable books. I noticed a first edition of John ...